Assignments for the Week of June 20-26

Hi everyone,

Here are your practice assignments for this week:

Aidan

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: Beat from the Funky Drummer by James Brown.

How to practice it most effectively: Play the beat slowly and focus on creating a significant contrast between the regular snare notes and the ghost notes. Also try to incorporate the accent pattern on the hi-hat that we worked on a number of weeks ago.

How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.

Will

Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day

What to practice: The beat from Ride by 21 Pilots.

How to practice it most effectively: Take a close look at the beat before you practice it and be sure that you can count out loud the main parts of the rhythm as you play. Be careful not to leave out and of the 16th notes on the hi-hat. Try playing along with a recording of the song.

How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.

Elliot

Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day

What to practice: The whole song: Back in Black by ACDC.

How to practice it most effectively: Now that we have finished learning all the parts of the song, work on playing them all together. Try playing through the whole song with the recording and take note of the parts that you find difficult. Then go back and isolate those parts to work on individually. Then, at the end of your practice session, play through the whole song once more.

How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.

Oscar

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: Swing beats with left hand rhythms on the snare and the beginning of the trio of Log Cabin Blues.

How to practice it most effectively: Fill in the second and third notes of the triplet on the snare drum while playing the swing pattern with the right hand and feet. Start very slowly and try to solidify the coordination before speeding up. For the trio of Log Cabin Blues, focus on the first two sections: the F chord moving down to E-flat, and then the B diminished chord with double stops on the C-sharp and G.

How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.

Nate M.

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: Tom Sawyer by Rush.

How to practice it most effectively: Take the song section by section and try to memorize the variations in each section. Generally there are four-bar phrases that repeat once within each section. Listen carefully to the recording and try to slow the beats down so that you can solidify the coordination.

How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.